Mother and newborn bonding skin to skin after birth

About Vibwife and the team

A midwife's idea, brought to life

Support physiological birth worldwide

Anna and Tobias von Siebenthal, founders of Vibwife

The idea was born

At the age of six, Anna knew she wanted to work in the field of birth. As a midwife, she became fascinated by how the body and baby work together — and how small changes can influence labour. One moment during her training stayed with her. A woman was transferred from a birth centre: the cervix was fully open, but the baby's head had remained high for hours. After a fast, bumpy ambulance ride, the baby was almost born. The explanation was simple — continuous movement had supported the labour process. From that moment, Anna began observing more closely how movement, through walking, swaying, or gentle vibration, can support birth. One question followed her: what if these movements could be made accessible directly in the birthing bed? In 2014, that question became a starting point. Early prototypes were developed and tested in clinical settings — often during night shifts — and refined together with her future husband, engineers, midwives, and researchers.

Vibwife came to life

From the beginning, Anna’s husband Tobias believed in the idea and encouraged her to take it further. What started as a shared vision grew alongside their relationship — building both family and company over more than a decade. The first patent was filed in 2016 and is now granted in countries worldwide. Recognition followed: the prestigious de Vigier Award and KTI funding enabled the first CE-certified device in 2017. The next year, Universitätsspital Basel conducted the first clinical study on Vibwife’s safety and acceptance. In 2019, Vibwife made the step from prototype to real-world application, entering its first pioneer clinic SANA Hanse Klinikum in Wismar, Germany — followed by further clinics across the DACH region. That same year, a partnership with LINET, the world’s leading hospital bed manufacturer, gave Vibwife the foundation to scale globally. Produced in the Czech Republic and integrated into LINET’s existing birthing bed systems, Vibwife now makes movement accessible on a larger scale — across the world.

What drives us

Every woman deserves to stay active, relaxed, and connected to her body during birth. Not as an ideal — as a standard. That is what we are building towards with every clinic, every birth, every partnership.

We want movement in birth to be accessible everywhere — for women, for caregivers, and for the healthcare systems committed to family-centred care. Vibwife exists to make that possible at scale.